Melco Philippines share tender put float below rules

Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) Corp, the operator of the City of Dreams Manila casino resort, has confirmed that a recently-completed tender offer to take some its shares out of public ownership will put its public float below the level required under the rules of the local bourse.

The company said in a Wednesday filling that once the tendered public shares were “crossed”, i.e., confirmed as being out of public investors’ hands – due to happen on December 10 – it would “issue another disclosure” on the matter.

MCO (Philippines) Investments Ltd – which was Melco Resorts Philippines’ majority owner even before the tender offer that concluded on November 29 – had originally planned to take the listed entity off the Philippine Stock Exchange, but encountered some resistance from some stock holders and it withdrew its petition for voluntary delisting of the company.

That then raised the question of what would happen when the tender offer, priced at PHP7.25 (US$0.137) per share, caused the public float in Melco Resorts Philippines to fall below the 10 percent minimum level required under the rules.

MCO Investments intended to purchase up to nearly 1.57 billion outstanding common shares in Melco Resorts Philippines held by the public. A total of nearly 1.34 billion shares were tendered by public shareholders during the exercise, meaning that at the end of it, MCO Investments was left holding 96.1 percent of the outstanding common stock of Melco Resorts Philippines.

After crossing of the tendered shares, that will leave 3.9 percent of Melco Resorts Philippines’ stock in the hands of “shareholders other than MCO Investments and its affiliates,” confirmed one of two filings issued on Wednesday by Melco Resorts Philippines regarding the tender exercise.

In a September annoucement, Asian casino operator Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd – the ultimate parent of Melco Resorts Philippines – said the listing on the Philippine Stock Exchange was not contributing to the group’s ability to raise funds in that market.

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